Days habit missed: Hard to quantify

Ease of doing daily: Easy-ish

Equipment required: Food, mouth, memory

Is it something I’ll continue? Yes

 

Funnily enough, I just read an article today which reported that there is very strong evidence linking eating quickly to obesity. Not only that, but eating fast and mindlessly could also be connected to decreased satisfaction from food and even to an increased risk of insulin resistance, the pre-cursor to type II diabetes. Eek! There’s also the other reason that I chose this habit – that eating quickly and not chewing your food properly (i.e. inhaling it) doesn’t do your digestion any favours either.

I have made some effort here. Mainly I focus on trying to chew more, but it has been a bit of a case of when I remember. Eating in front of the TV/computer/book is supposed to bad practice, but the reality is that whilst I would like to eat at the table more, by the time I’ve got everything done and have actually cooked a meal it’s usually about 9pm. We usually eat in front of the TV as otherwise there really wouldn’t be any time to watch anything, so I’ll just have accept that and move on. One of the arguments is that you eat more in those circumstances. I can see how that would apply if you were just snacking mindlessly, but we’re talking about a meal here – once it’s dished up there are no seconds and so where I eat it doesn’t make any difference on that score.

I think I could do better though, so things I plan to try are:

Putting my cutlery down between mouthfuls

• Making a conscious effort to savour the taste and texture of everything I eat
• Not eating standing up (note I don’t eat full meals standing up, but I can occasionally grab a snack on the go and I know this is a bad habit on many levels).